ADIDAS AG (German pronunciation: ) (stylised as ADIDAS since 1949)
is a German multinational corporation , headquartered in
Herzogenaurach ,
BavariaBavaria , that designs and manufactures shoes,
clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in
Europe, and the second largest in the world.

It is the holding company for the
AdidasAdidas Group, which consists of the
Reebok sportswear company,
TaylorMade-Adidas golf company (including
Ashworth ), 8.33% of Bayern Munich and
Runtastic , an Austrian fitness
technology company.
AdidasAdidas revenue for 2016 was listed at € 19.29
billion.

AdidasAdidas was registered on 18 August 1949 by
Adolf Dassler , following
a family feud at the Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik company between him
and his older brother Rudolf . Rudolf had earlier established Puma ,
which quickly became the business rival of Adidas, and is also
headquartered in Herzogenaurach. The company's clothing and shoe
designs typically feature three parallel bars , and the same motif is
incorporated into Adidas's current official logo. The brand name is
uncapitalized and is stylized with a lower case "a".

CONTENTS

* 1 History

* 1.1 Early days
* 1.2 World War II and company split
* 1.3 Early years and rivalry with Puma
* 1.4 3-Stripe logo
* 1.5 Tapie affair

Christoph Von Wilhelm Dassler was a worker in a shoe factory, while
his wife Pauline ran a small laundry in the Franconian town of
Herzogenaurach , 20 km (12.4 mi) from the city of
NurembergNuremberg . After
leaving school, their son, Rudolf "Rudi" Dassler , joined his father
at the shoe factory. When he returned from fighting in
World War IWorld War I ,
Rudolf received a management position at a porcelain factory, and
later in a leather wholesale business in
NurembergNuremberg .

Adolf "Adi" Dassler started to produce his own sports shoes in his
mother's wash kitchen in
Herzogenaurach after his return from World
War I. In July 1924, his brother Rudolf returned to
Herzogenaurach to
join his younger brother's business, which became Gebrüder Dassler
Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) and prospered. The pair
started the venture in their mother's laundry, :5 but, at the time,
electricity supplies in the town were unreliable, and the brothers
sometimes had to use pedal power from a stationary bicycle to run
their equipment.

By the
1936 Summer Olympics1936 Summer Olympics ,
Adi Dassler drove from
BavariaBavaria on one
of the world's first motorways to the Olympic village with a suitcase
full of spikes and persuaded U.S. sprinter
Jesse Owens to use them,
the first sponsorship for an African American. Following Owens' haul
of four gold medals, his success cemented the good reputation of
Dassler shoes among the world's most famous sportsmen. Letters from
around the world landed on the brothers' desks, and the trainers of
other national teams were all interested in their shoes. Business
boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes every year
before World War II.

WORLD WAR II AND COMPANY SPLIT

During the war, a growing rift between the pair reached a breaking
point after an Allied bomb attack in 1943, when Adi and his wife ran
into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in: "The
bastards are back again", Adi said, referring to the Allies war
planes, but Rudolf was utterly convinced that his brother had been
referring to him and his family. After Rudolf was later picked up by
American soldiers and accused of being a member of the
Waffen SS ,
which he was not, he felt certain that his brother had turned him in.

The Dolbury factory, used for production of anti-tank weapons during
the war, was nearly destroyed by US forces in April 1945, but was
spared when Adi Dassler's wife, Käthe, convinced the GIs that the
company and its employees were only interested in manufacturing sports
shoes. American occupying forces subsequently became major buyers of
the Dassler brothers' shoes.

The brothers split up in 1947, with Rudi forming a new firm that he
called RUDA – from RUdolf DAssler, later rebranded Puma , and Adi
forming a company formally registered as ADIDAS AG from ADI DASsler on
18 August 1949. Although it is a popular urban myth that the name is
an acronym for All Day I Dream About Sports, that phrase is a
"backronym "; in reality the name is actually a portmanteau formed
from "Adi" (a nickname for Adolf) and "Das" (from "Dassler").

EARLY YEARS AND RIVALRY WITH PUMA

Puma SE and
AdidasAdidas entered into a fierce and bitter business rivalry
after the split. Indeed, the town of
Herzogenaurach was divided on the
issue, leading to the nickname "the town of bent necks"—people
looked down to see which shoes strangers wore. Even the town's two
football clubs were divided: ASV
Herzogenaurach club was supported by
Adidas, while 1 FC
Herzogenaurach endorsed Rudolf's footwear. When
handymen were called to Rudolf's home, they would deliberately wear
AdidasAdidas shoes. Rudolf would tell them to go to the basement and pick
out a pair of free Pumas. The two brothers were never reconciled and
although both are now buried in the same cemetery, they are spaced as
far apart as possible.

At the
1960 Summer Olympics , Puma paid German sprinter
Armin HaryArmin Hary to
wear Pumas in the 100 meter sprint final. Hary had worn
AdidasAdidas before
and asked Adolf for payment, but
AdidasAdidas rejected this request. The
German won gold in Pumas, but then laced up
AdidasAdidas for the medals
ceremony, to the shock of the two Dassler brothers. Hary hoped to cash
in from both, but Adi was so enraged he banned the Olympic champion.

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After a period of trouble following the death of Adolf Dassler's son
Horst Dassler in 1987, the company was bought in 1989 by French
industrialist
Bernard Tapie , for ₣ 1.6 billion (now €243.9
million), which Tapie borrowed. Tapie was at the time a famous
specialist of rescuing bankrupt companies, an expertise on which he
built his fortune.

Tapie decided to move production offshore to Asia. He also hired
Madonna for promotion. He sent, from
ChristchurchChristchurch , New Zealand, a
shoe sales representative to
GermanyGermany and met Adolf Dassler's
descendants (Amelia Randall Dassler and Bella Beck Dassler) and was
sent back with a few items to promote the company there.

In 1992, unable to pay the loan interest, Tapie mandated the Crédit
Lyonnais bank to sell Adidas, and the bank subsequently converted the
outstanding debt owed into equity of the enterprise, which was unusual
as per the prevalent French banking practice. The state-owned bank had
tried to get Tapie out of dire financial straits as a personal favour
to Tapie, it is reported, because Tapie was Minister of Urban Affairs
(ministre de la Ville) in the French government at the time.

In February 2000,
Crédit Lyonnais sold
AdidasAdidas to Robert
Louis-Dreyfus , a friend of
Bernard Tapie for a much higher amount of
money than what Tapie owed, 4.485 billion (€683.514 million) francs
rather than 2.85 billion (€434.479 million). They also purposely
bankrupted Tapie's company that owned Adidas, because only the company
had the right to sue them.

Tapie filed for personal bankruptcy in 1994. He was the object of
several lawsuits, notably related to match fixing at the football
club. During 1997, he served 6 months of an 18-month prison sentence
in
La Santé prison in Paris.

POST-TAPIE ERA

An
AdidasAdidas shoe, with the company's distinctive three parallel
bars

In 1994, combined with
FIFAFIFA Youth Group, SOS Children\'s Villages
became the main beneficiary.

In 1997,
AdidasAdidas AG acquired the
Salomon Group who specialized in ski
wear, and its official corporate name was changed to Adidas-Salomon
AG. With this acquisition
AdidasAdidas also acquired the Taylormade Golf
company and
Maxfli , which allowed them to compete with Nike Golf.

In 1998,
AdidasAdidas sued the
NCAANCAA over their rules limiting the size and
number of commercial logos on team uniforms and team clothing. Adidas
withdrew the suit, and the two groups established guidelines as to
what three-stripe designs would be considered uses of the Adidas
trademark.

As
CEO of Adidas, Louis-Dreyfus quadrupled revenue to 5.84 billion
euros ($7.5 billion) from 1993 through 2000. In 2000, he announced he
would resign the following year, due to illness.

In 2003,
AdidasAdidas filed a lawsuit in a British court challenging
Fitness World Trading's use of a two-stripe motif similar to Adidas's
three stripes . The court ruled that despite the simplicity of the
mark, Fitness World 's use was infringing because the public could
establish a link between that use and Adidas's mark.

In September 2004, top English fashion designer Stella McCartney
launched a joint-venture line with Adidas, establishing a long-term
partnership with the corporation. This line is a sports performance
collection for women called "
AdidasAdidas by Stella McCartney", and it has
been critically acclaimed.

Also, on 3 May 2005,
AdidasAdidas told the public that they sold their
partner company
Salomon Group for €485m to
Amer Sports of Finland.
In August 2005,
AdidasAdidas declared its intention to buy
Reebok for $3.8
billion (US$). This takeover was completed with partnership in January
2006 and meant that the company would have business sales closer to
those of Nike in North America. The acquisition of
Reebok would also
allow
AdidasAdidas to compete with Nike worldwide as the number two athletic
shoemaker in the world.

AdidasAdidas has global corporate headquarters in Germany, and many other
business locations around the world such as Portland OR, Hong Kong,
Toronto, Taiwan, England, Japan, Australia, and Spain.

In 2005,
AdidasAdidas introduced the
Adidas 1 , the first ever production
shoe to use a microprocessor . Dubbed by the company "The World's
First Intelligent Shoe", it features a microprocessor capable of
performing 5 million calculations per second that automatically
adjusts the shoe's level of cushioning to suit its environment. The
shoe requires a small, user-replaceable battery that lasts for
approximately 100 hours of running. On 25 November 2005, Adidas
released a new version of the
Adidas 1 with an increased range of
cushioning, allowing the shoe to become softer or firmer, and a new
motor with 153 percent more torque.

On 11 April 2006,
AdidasAdidas announced an 11-year deal to become the
official
NBANBA clothing provider. The company has been making
NBANBA , NBDL
, and W
NBANBA jerseys and products as well as team-coloured versions of
the "Superstar" basketball shoe. This deal (worth over $400 million)
took over the previous
Reebok deal that had been put in place in 2001
for 10 years.

On November 2011,
AdidasAdidas announced that it would acquire outdoor
action sport performance brand Five Ten through a share purchase
agreement. The total purchase price was $25 million USD in cash at
closing.

By the end of 2012,
AdidasAdidas was reporting their highest revenues ever
and Chief Executive
Herbert Hainer expressed optimism for the year
ahead.

In January 2015,
AdidasAdidas launched the footwear industry's first
reservation mobile app. The
AdidasAdidas Confirmed app allows consumers to
get access to and reserve the brand's limited edition sneakers by
using geo targeting technology

On 24 March 2015,
AdidasAdidas and McDonald's unveiled the 2015 McDonald's
All-American uniforms. For the third year in a row, players will be
wearing short-sleeved jerseys, made with the same lightweight and
breathable material as the ones used in the NBA.

One of the main focuses of
AdidasAdidas has always been football kits , and
the associated equipment.
AdidasAdidas remains a major company in the global
supply of team kits for international association football teams and
clubs.

AdidasAdidas makes referee kits that are used in international competition
and by many countries and leagues in the world. The company has been
an innovator in the area of footwear for the sport, with notable
examples including the 1979 release of the Copa Mundial moulded boot
used for matches on firm dry pitches. It holds the accolade of the
best selling boot of all time. The soft-ground equivalent was named
World Cup and it too remains on the market.

FIFAFIFA , the world governing body of football, commissioned specially
designed footballs for use in its own World Cup tournaments. The balls
supplied for the 2006 World Cup , the "Teamgeist ", were particular
noteworthy for their ability to travel further than previous types
when struck, leading to longer range goals. Goalkeepers were generally
believed to be less comfortable with the design of the ball, claiming
it was prone to move significantly and unpredictably in flight.
Adidas Beau JeuAdidas Beau Jeu , which translates to Beautiful Game in English, was
an officlal match ball of UEFA
EuroEuro 2016

In April 2013,
AdidasAdidas and
Opta Sports announced the introduction of a
new football player type - the Engine. The Engine' is the
archetypical box-to-box footballer who covers every blade of grass,
seeks goal scoring chances, tracks down his opponent and displays
relentless energy from the first minute to the final whistle.

Adidas' Superstar and Pro Model shoes, affectionately known as
"shelltoes" for their stylized hard rubber toe box, were fueled by,
among others, coaches such as
UCLAUCLA 's
John WoodenJohn Wooden .
AdidasAdidas drew about
even with Converse in basketball by the mid 1970s before both started
to fall behind then-upstart Nike in the early 1980s. Subsequently,
Adidas Superstar became very popular in the 1980s hip hop streetwear
scene alongside Adidas's stripe-sided polyester suits.

AdidasAdidas began manufacturing cricket footwear in the mid 1970s, with
their initial target market being Australia. Their shoes were a
radical departure from traditional leather cricket boots which had
remained basically unchanged for decades, being lighter and more
flexible but also offering less toe protection, so that it became not
uncommon to see batsmen who had been struck by the ball on the foot
hopping around in pain. Having continued to manufacture cricket
footwear for many years, in 2006 the company finally entered the field
of bat manufacture in 2008 and currently their bat range includes the
Pellara, Incurza, Libro and M-Blaster models.

In the 1990s,
AdidasAdidas signed the superstar Indian batsman Sachin
Tendulkar and made shoes for him. From 2008 till his retirement,
AdidasAdidas had sponsored the cricket bat used by Tendulkar. It created a
new bat, '
AdidasAdidas MasterBlaster Elite', personalized for him.

In 2008,
AdidasAdidas made a concerted move into English cricket market by
sponsoring English batting star
Kevin PietersenKevin Pietersen after the cancellation
of his lifetime deal with Woodworm , when they ran into financial
difficulties. The following year they signed up fellow England player
Ian Bell , Pakistan opening batsman
Salman Butt and Indian Player
Ravindra Jadeja .

In 2007,
AdidasAdidas announced its entering to the lacrosse equipment,
also sponsoring the
AdidasAdidas National
LacrosseLacrosse Classic in July 2008 for
the top 600 high school underclassmen players in the United States.
The company made their self into their own brand such as "Adidas
Lacrosse", getting several scholarships, Bucknell (men and women),
Bryant (men), Delaware (men and women), New Jersey Institute of
Technology (men), and D3 powerhouse Lynchburg (men and women in fall
of 2016 with soft good only)". Materials that adidas provided were
jerseys, shorts, shoes, shafts, heads, gloves, and protective pieces.

Products manufactured for the sport are sticks , gloves, protective
gear and boots.

Rugby

Running

AdidasAdidas currently manufactures several running and lifestyle shoes,
including the Energy-boost, and the spring-blade trainers.I The brand
has built a strong runners' network within big European capitals, such
as Paris' "Boost Energy League". In 2016 the 3rd season launched. In
Paris, the Boost Energy League gathers 11 teams representing different
districts of Paris.

AdidasAdidas launched two new color ways of the NMD R1 and one new color
way of the NMD XR1 in September 2016.

In November 2016,
AdidasAdidas launched a sneaker made from ocean plastic.
The shoe is created from a fabric called "Biosteel ". The shoe is
called the "
AdidasAdidas Futurecraft Biofabric." The material used is 15%
lighter than conventional silk fibers, and is 100% biodegradable. The
shoe only begin to dissolve when it is put in contact with a high
concentration of the digestion enzyme proteinase, which occurs
naturally. Once this happens, the shoes can decompose within 36 hours.

Skateboarding

AdidasAdidas Skateboarding produces shoes made specifically for
skateboarding, including the redesign of previous models for
skateboarding. The brand also releases signature models designed by
team riders.

Tennis

AdidasAdidas has been involved with tennis equipment since the mid 1960s
and has historically sponsored many top tennis players, beginning with
two of the most dominant male tennis players at the start of the
professional era in the late 1960s,
Stan Smith and
Ilie Nastase .
During the 1980s and 1990s, not only were they exclusive apparel and
footwear sponsors of world number one men's tennis players Ivan Lendl
and
Stefan Edberg and ladies' world number one
Steffi Graf but each
player had their own, exclusive graphic styles designed for their use
during play, which were in turn marketed to the general public. Ivan
Lendl even spent the vast majority of his dominant career playing with
several different models of
AdidasAdidas tennis racquets, primarily using
the legendary
AdidasAdidas GTX-Pro and then later the
AdidasAdidas GTX Pro-T. The
company recently introduced a new line of tennis racquets . While the
Feather is made for the "regular player", and the Response for the
"club player",
AdidasAdidas targets the "tournament player" with the 12.2 oz
Barricade tour model.

Kabaddi

AdidasAdidas entered
KabaddiKabaddi which is still a non Olympic sport but highly
popular in the Indian subcontinent and Asian countries. In 2014, with
the launch of Pro
KabaddiKabaddi League a city based franchise league in
India, kabaddi took the region with storm. In 2015, they tied up with
Mumbai-based franchise
U Mumba

"The association of kabaddi with adidas is a clear exemplification of
the growth of the sport over the last two years," shared U Sports CEO,
Supratik Sen.

AdidasAdidas announced they would be launching a new $199 Fit Smart
wristband in mid-August 2014. The wristband will pair with Adidas's
miCoach app, which acts as a personal trainer.

Adilette

ADILETTE was the first ever pair of sandals made by Adidas,
originally developed in 1963.
AdidasAdidas claims that a group of athletes
approached
Adi Dassler requesting a shoe be made for the locker room.

To this day, the resulting sandals are a best-seller. Since the
original navy blue and white ADILETTE sandals were created nearly
fifty years ago, more varieties have been created in different colours
(black, red, green, grey, orange, brown, yellow, pink, golden,
silver). Most recently,
AdidasAdidas has introduced a colour scheme that
goes along with its Predator and adizero line; the scheme is dubbed
warning (orange) and purple. Usually, the three stripes appear in the
contrasting colour on the strap of the classic models. The most common
adilette livery is in navy blue or black, mixed with white colours.
Also the Woodilette and Trefoil models follow a similar design but
without stripes on the strap.

The model provides a contoured orthopedic rubber sole with synthetic
upper, and was designed as an après-sport slide , but the adilette
were quickly used everywhere out of the sporting world. Opting for a
wide, over the foot strap rather than the design of flip flops , the
adilette sandals provide a fresh style and a different level of
comfort for the wearer. The strap is also glued to the sides of the
sandal, which directs tension to less stressful areas of the sandal,
which gives the sandals more durability.

Santiossage

The SANTIOSSAGE is a uni-sex slide -style sandal. The sandal has the
trademarked three stripes on a velcro strap toward the front of the
shoe.
Santiossage comes in black, navy, or red. On the side of the
shoe, toward the heel on either side, the manufacturer's name appears,
as well as on a round emblem in the actual heel of the foot-bed.
Notably, there are tiny clear massage nubs throughout the foot-bed for
the purpose of massaging after-sport footaches, although the sandals
are worn casually among non-athletes. Seen through these clear nubs
are Adidas' three stripes.

Adissage

A pair of Adissage

ADISSAGE is also a uni-sex slide -style sandal. Available in black,
navy, light blue, black with pink, and other assorted colors, the
sandal has the trademarked three stripes on a velcro strap toward the
front of the shoe. On the side of the shoe, toward the heel on either
side, the manufacturers name appears, as well as on a round emblem in
the actual heel of the footbed. Like the SANTIOSSAGE, there are tiny
black massage nubs throughout the foot-bed for the purpose of
massaging foot aches after sport, although popular as a casual sandal
amongst non-athletes as well.

Adidas, like other sports brands, is believed to engender high
consumer brand loyalty. Brand loyalty towards Adidas,
Nike, Inc. ,
Puma AG and several other sportswear brands was examined in a recent
study. The study found consumers did not exhibit unduly high loyalty
towards such brands.

During the mid to late 1990s,
AdidasAdidas divided the brand into three
main groups with each a separate focus: ADIDAS PERFORMANCE was
designed to maintain their devotion to the athlete; ADIDAS ORIGINALS
was designed to focus on the brand's earlier designs which remained a
popular life-style icon; and STYLE ESSENTIALS, which dealt with the
fashion market; the main group within this being Y-3 (which is a
collaboration between
AdidasAdidas and renowned Japanese fashion designer
Yohji Yamamoto - the Y representing Yamamoto and the 3 representing
the three stripes of Adidas).

"
AdidasAdidas is all in" is the current global marketing strategy slogan
for Adidas. The slogan aims to tie all brands and labels together,
presenting a unified image to consumers interested in sports, fashion,
street, music and pop culture. There appears to be connection with the
phrase "all-in" meaning "exhausted" in some English speaking nations.

Launched in 2004, "Impossible is Nothing" is one of the company's
most memorable campaigns. The campaign was developed by 180/TBWA
based in Amsterdam, but significant work was also done by TBWAChiatDay
in San Francisco. A few years later,
AdidasAdidas launched a basketball
specific campaign -- "Believe in 5ive"—for the 2006-2007
NBANBA season.

MARKETING IN INDIA

India has been a very speculative market for Adidas. Despite this
Dave Thomas, managing director of
AdidasAdidas in India is ambitious of the
country's potential. The company hopes to double its revenue from Rs.
805 crores by 2020. In 2015, the company had signed
Ranveer Singh a
prominent Bollywood actor as a brand ambassador to the company's
products. Ranveer then was a budding actor. The company later decided
to use the people's almost religious adoration for the game cricket to
promote their brand. It soon launched a new cricket campaign in the
country. The campaign was called FeelLoveUseHate with prominent
Indian cricketer Virat Kohli. However in 2017,
Virat KohliVirat Kohli was
removed as the brand ambassador of the company. The cricketer later
signed a major deal with Puma India. The company also sells its
products online through e-commerce websites such as Myntra, Snapdeal,
Jabong and Amazon.
AdidasAdidas also has a website dedicated to the Indian
audience that markets and sells products to its consumers in India.

In July 2014,
AdidasAdidas and Manchester United agreed to a ten-year kit
deal, beginning with the
2015–16 Premier League season . This kit
deal has a guaranteed minimum value of £750 million (US$1.29
billion), making it the most valuable kit deal in sports history, and
replaced rival Nike as the club's global equipment partner. Andy
Murray endorsed
AdidasAdidas from the start of the 2010 season until the end
of the 2014 season receiving US$4.9 million per year.

In November 2009, World Number 4
Andy MurrayAndy Murray was confirmed as Adidas'
highest-paid star with a five-year contract reportedly worth US$24.5
million. In
CincinnatiCincinnati , at the ATP Tennis Tournament in Mason, they
have also sponsored the ball-boy and ball-girl uniforms.
AdidasAdidas is
also partners with Malibu Tennis Camp, Green Fitness GmbH and with
Schöler "> The
All Blacks jersey caused controversy.

Unhappy with the local price of the
AdidasAdidas replica
All Blacks jersey,
New Zealand-based
All Blacks fans have asked for price cuts and begun
purchasing the jersey from overseas vendors after it was revealed that
the local price of $NZ220 was more than twice the price offered on
some websites.

AdidasAdidas has responded by enforcing cross-border agreements to stop
overseas retailers from selling to New Zealand residents. It has been
labelled a public relations disaster by leading New Zealand PR firms
and Consumer advocate groups. The largest New Zealand sportswear
retailer
Rebel Sport has stated it is angry and is considering selling
the
All Blacks Jerseys to the general public below cost.

2012 "SHACKLE" SNEAKERS

On 14 June 2012,
AdidasAdidas posted on their Facebook page a picture of a
pair of
Jeremy Scott -designed shoes containing shackles. The picture
was of a planned shoe line that
AdidasAdidas intended to release in July.
The photo quickly caused controversy including that of Jesse Jackson
who was quoted as saying "The attempt to commercialize and make
popular more than 200 years of human degradation, where blacks were
considered three-fifths human by our Constitution is offensive,
appalling and insensitive". Jackson threatened a boycott, and NBA
commissioner
David SternDavid Stern was at one point reportedly contacted in
hopes that he would intervene. Shortly after the outcry, the company
cancelled the product.

SWEATSHOPS AND LABOUR RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

AdidasAdidas has been criticized for operating sweatshops , particularly in
Indonesia. Between 2006 and 2007,
AdidasAdidas rejected many of its
suppliers that supported unions for subcontractors with less reputable
labour rights records. By subcontracting work to different suppliers,
it is more difficult for
AdidasAdidas to ensure company labour standards are
enforced. Workplace standards that Adidas' policy upholds include the
freedom for workers to take part in collective bargaining and a
non-retaliation policy towards workers who express concerns. In
practice, however, many of Adidas' suppliers have not upheld these
standards. At the Panarub factory in
JavaJava , 33 workers were fired
after striking for better pay in 2005. PT Kizone is another
Indonesian factory where
AdidasAdidas has received criticism over treatment
of workers. They produced products for
AdidasAdidas as well as Nike and the
Dallas CowboysDallas Cowboys until they closed in January 2011. 2,686 workers who
were laid off are owed $3 million in severance pay and benefits. Nike
has contributed $1.5 million but
AdidasAdidas has not acted. A campaign has
been initiated by United Students Against
Sweatshops calling for
universities to cut contracts with Adidas. On 16 July 2012, War on
Want organised activists in London to replace
AdidasAdidas price tags in
sports stores with 34p ones, a reference to the low hourly wage rate
paid to the Indonesian workers who make
AdidasAdidas goods. The campaign
group
Labour Behind the Label claimed that the basic pay of Indonesian
AdidasAdidas workers was only £10 a week. William Anderson, head of social
and environmental affairs for the Asia Pacific region, posted an entry
on the company blog in which he sought to justify the 34p an hour pay
rate.

For years,
AdidasAdidas purchased paper for its packaging from Asia Pulp ">
as a "forest criminal" for destroying "precious habitat" in
Indonesia's rainforest. In 2011, when
AdidasAdidas cancelled its contract
with Asia Pulp border:solid #aaa 1px">